What did Ratu Thalisa say? Indonesian TikTok star jailed on grounds of blasphemy over Jesus Christ remark

An Indonesian influencer, Ratu Thalisa, has been sentenced to two years and ten months in prison in Indonesia after her viral comment asking Jesus Christ to get a haircut. Her conviction came on the grounds of blasphemy and spreading hatred under the online hate speech law, aka the Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law, on March 10, 2025, at a court in Medan City, North Sumatra.

Ratu Thalisa, who goes by Ratu Entok on TikTok, was livestreaming on the platform on October 2, 2024, when one of her 442,000 viewers asked her to cut her hair like a biological male. Thalisa is a trans woman. In response, the TikToker held up a photograph of Jesus Christ and addressed Him directly by saying:

“You should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.”

In the wake of the viral moment, five Christian organizations filed a complaint with Indonesian police for blasphemy, following which Ratu Thalisa was arrested on October 8. She was later charged and indicted with blasphemy and hate speech against the religion, until Monday, when she was found guilty and sentenced to nearly three years in prison. Ms. Thalisa has been given a week to appeal her sentencing.

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More about Ratu Thalisa’s case in wake of her conviction

During Monday’s hearing in Medan City, Sumatra, the district court claimed that Ratu Thalisa’s comments on Jesus Christ had the potential to disrupt “public order” and “religious harmony.” As a result, she was sentenced to 34 months in prison and was ordered to pay 100,000,000 IDR (£4,711) in fines.

Various advocacy groups have criticized the sentence and deemed it as an attack on Thalisa’s “freedom of expression” and misuse of Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law. For instance, Usman Hamid, the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, shared a statement with the media and urged the government to reconsider Ratu’s sentencing.

“While Indonesia should prohibit the advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech act does not reach that threshold," he stated.

Hamid continued:

“This sentence highlights the increasingly arbitrary and repressive application of Indonesia’s EIT law to violate freedom of expression.”

Mr. Usman concluded by asking the authorities to revise the “problematic provisions” in the EIT law, which is at par with other critics of the law who have expressed concerns about its potential abuse “to suppress human rights defenders and opposition figures.”

Meanwhile, as per BBC reports, prosecutors originally demanded more than four years in prison and immediately appealed Monday’s verdict.

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In brief, looking at Indonesia's EIT law

EIT law was introduced in 2008 and amended in 2016 to tackle online defamation and protect individual rights online. Nearly 560 people have been charged and 421 convicted with alleged violations under the law while exercising their freedom of expression between 2019 and 2024, according to Indonesia’s Amnesty International.

For instance, according to BBC, in September 2023, a female Muslim social media influencer named Lina Lutfiawati (also known as Lina Mukherjee) was sentenced to two years after sharing a TikTok video of herself praying before eating pork. She was convicted for blasphemy.

Last year, another TikToker was detained by authorities for alleged blasphemy after they posted a quiz asking kids the kind of animals that can read the Islamic holy book, Quran.

A Chinese-Indonesian politician named Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who served as Jakarta’s first non-Muslim governor in 50 year,s was also put on trial for blasphemy in 2017.

Purnama, who goes by the nickname Ahok, angered the Islamic community after referencing a Quran verse while campaigning for re-election in 2016. The following year, he was sentenced to two years in prison despite his public apology.